A Brief History of Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the 4th installment into the Animal Crossing series, which is both developed and published by Nintendo. The Community Simulation game was first released on the N64 as a Japanese exclusive in April 2001, but was then ported to the Nintendo GameCube in every other region by the end of 2004. As soon as the original Animal Crossing made its way out of Japan, it became an instant success.

Animal Crossing: Population Growing

The original Animal Crossing game, called Animal Crossing: Population Growing, was the first of its kind, with many unique gameplay elements which had never been seen before. Population Growing plots you as a resident in a town which goes along in synchronization with real life by using the GameCube’s system clock and calender. This allows you to play in the same season and holidays that are currently happening in real life. For instance, at thanksgiving, there will be a thanksgiving festival on Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

The successor to the original Animal Crossing was Animal Crossing: Wild World for the Nintendo DS, which was released in November 2005. This game was the first Animal Crossing on a handheld system, and was packed with hundreds of new features which expanded gameplay into greater depths. The most notable of these features was the ability to play with somebody else at the same time as them, via the use of WiFi. One user was able to visit another users town, which made Animal Crossing popular within the online community.

Animal Crossing: City Folk

After Animal Crossing: Wild World came Animal Crossing: City Folk, which was released on the Nintendo Wii In November 2008. City Folk added several new gameplay elements, most notably the ability to talk to other users with Wii Speak instead of having to input text. The player was also able to travel to a city outside of your town, where you could visit shops and buy more items. Despite this the game was criticized for being similar to Animal Crossing: Wild World. Many felt that Animal Crossing: City Folk was just a port of Wild World with enhanced graphics and simple motion controls.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

The negative reception of Animal Crossing: City Folk lead to the games developers to them creating a much enhanced version of the game for Nintendo 3DS, called Animal Crossing: New Leaf. New Leaf was the first Animal Crossing game which allowed you to become mayor of you town, which expanded the series with countless new abilities as a player. You were now capable of placing items outside such as lampposts and benches, alongside being able to swim and visit an island. Animal Crossing: New Leaf also added more shops and items, which lead to it becoming the most positively reviewed version of Animal Crossing.